Spoof obituary for restaurant forced to close down after its roof caves in goes viral

THE obituary, written by the distraught owner of Illegal Jack's South West Grill in Edinburgh, has received over 100,000 views on Facebook and been retweeted more than 800 times by fans of the restaurant.

A SPOOF obituary for a restaurant forced to close down after its roof caved in has gone viral online.

The owner of Illegal Jack’s South West Grill in Edinburgh announced on Thursday that the business had gone bust with the loss of 14 jobs.

Distraught Jack Muir wrote the obituary – which gave the alleged cause of death as a leaky roof which took weeks to fix – and posted it on Facebook.

By last night, it had been seen by more than 100,000 users of the social networking site and retweeted more than 800 times by fans of the Tex-Mex restaurant.

One of those mourning the loss of the popular dining spot was Edinburgh crime writer Ian Rankin, who said he was “gutted” by the closure of Illegal Jacks, which opened on Lothian Road in November 2009.

Jack, 41, said yesterday the obituary he posted online was “the toned down version”.

It reads: “Cause of death: The HMO owner who did not fix a leak in her property upstairs causing the ceiling of Jack’s to collapse. This resulted in the eventual liquidation of the restaurant business today and 14 job losses.”

Jack added: “It’s gone absolutely crazy. It was the fourth-most talked about thing in the UK last night.

“I’m feeling really humbled at the outpouring of support. It was incredible and it’s still going.”

Jack said he had reported a serious leak from a flat upstairs last month – but claims it took 17 days for repair work to be carried out by the flat’s agents Lets 4 U.

By that point it was too late and the roof collapsed, forcing the restaurant to close its doors for two weeks.

After losing about £25,000 in takings, he had to tell staff on Thursday that the company had been handed over to liquidators.

He said: “The worst thing was having to fire all the staff, including myself.

“We didn’t do anything wrong but it’s out of our hands now.”

Waiter David McLeod, 19, who started working at the restaurant a month ago after searching for a job for two months, was one of the staff left devastated.

He said: “It didn’t really sink in at first when they told me.

“I can’t believe that after finally getting a job the restaurant is closing.”

Lets 4 U proprietor Karen Stephen said: “We have done everything possible to assist Mr Muir in the investigation of the leak and repair in conjunction with the landlord and Edinburgh Council.